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The Best Elder Scolls Game?

March 21st, 2011, 18:26

Originally Posted by JDR13
I didn't join the Dark Brotherhood in Morrowind because they seemed a bit on the "evil" side, which I don't normally role-play. I'll be sure to check them out whenever I start Oblivion again though.

They're definitely evil.

Interestingly enough, I normally never play evil characters either - and yet I felt it was a natural thing to join the DB in Oblivion.

But that's because I largely prefer to play stealthy types - and since the game was so open about how you go about developing your character or handle situations, it didn't feel so forced - like in a Bioware game where being evil is telegraphed by colors and obvious dialogue choices.

The DB is so excessively evil - that you can't really take it seriously. At least I couldn't - and the whole quest-line struck me as mostly tongue-in-cheek stuff, but done so well it didn't matter.

My personal choice is Morrowind. While I get acquainted with Elder Scrolls series with Daggerfall and played it hundreds of hours, Daggerfall's randomness in towns, dungeons, side quests became repetitive and boring after a while. So I always prefer Morrowind's hand made dungeons, quests to random ones. It's not only the alien worlds that I hold dear in Morrowind, but exploring contains lots of fun because of all this. Oblivion is in the bottom of my list, because of the randomness, streamlining and such. Simplistic and short dialogs, awful level scaling, generic world and terrible bloated faces (Yes I can't bear to look at the NPC faces). It was my biggest disappointment in 2006. But the biggest strength of all TES games are the modding community. And much of these problems were solved by talented modders. Most people can disagree with me, but Fallout 3 is much better than Oblivion (in terms of world, quests, level scaling, etc) and I hope Skyrim will be much better than Oblivion.

Morrowind by a mile. Daggerfall second, Oblivion third. Arena was too dated to be playable by the time I got it, and I havent tried the others.

I finished Daggerfall btw

Originally Posted by Gokyabgu
Most people can disagree with me, but Fallout 3 is much better than Oblivion (in terms of world, quests, level scaling, etc) and I hope Skyrim will be much better than Oblivion.

I for one agree. Oblivion was my 2nd biggest disappointment of 2006 (beaten only by the atrocity that is Railroads!), but when I bought a bargain-bin Fallout 3 I was pleasantly surprised. Some fine tuning and removing the (IMHO rather annoying dance-like friendly fire bonanza) melee combat of Oblivion was all it took for Bethsoft to produce another solid title. Funny since several of the mechanics that annoyed me in Oblivion are in the other Bethsoft titles as well, only less hamfisted (Daggerfall had pretty ridiculous level scaling though)…

Since FO3 showed that Bethsoft still can deliver games that work for me I'll probably get Skyrim, unless it is butchered by people I trust, but I'll wait for a bundle with some DLCs included.

I spent around 500 hours on Daggerfall, 400 on Morrowind and 150 on Oblivion (vanilla) and 200 on Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (OOO). I saw most of games' locations,items, persons and major quests. The rest are sandbox repetitive quests that get boring sooner or later.

That sounds close to my definition of "finish". I'd add all factions and all side/misc quests, too, although some are exclusive, and require multiple playthroughs to finish. For me removing the fog of war for the entire map is part of it completing, too (including underwater locations near to the shore in Morrowind). Still haven't played the House Hlaalu or House Redoran factions of Morrowind. One day…

Originally Posted by HiddenX
I spent around 500 hours on Daggerfall, 400 on Morrowind and 150 on Oblivion (vanilla) and 200 on Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (OOO). I saw most of games' locations,items, persons and major quests. The rest are sandbox repetitive quests that get boring sooner or later.

Holy shite…

I don't even understand how someone could milk 400 hours from Morrowind. Like I said earlier, I spent spent 200 there and did almost everything.

Originally Posted by Remus
I am surprise that many peoples here liked Morrowind. Something changed?. There was time when anyone here (rpgdot) mentioned the game, a flame war would broke up very often. Hmm, where are the Gothic's fans

Originally Posted by Thrasher
For me removing the fog of war for the entire map is part of it completing, too

*check*

Still haven't played the House Hlaalu or House Redoran factions of Morrowind. One day…

And I never joined another House but Hlaalu because I liked their mansion the best (but I did, of course, clean the premises of the other two mansions and planted my lantern of ownership right beside the door). That's something I'll have to do one day as well, play the Telvanni and Redoran side of things.

Hm, I guess I'm somewhat possessed with houses and interior decoration. Owning at least one house in every city is another goal. But Morrowind made it possible .

Well, I played DF, Redguard, MW, and Oblivion. Daggerfall made me a TES fan, but I agree with the majority that MW was the highlight so far. It did have its shortcomings in many ways, but to me "the sum of its parts" was a really great experience. Not to mention the hours of fun I had while modding it.
While I was well entertained by Oblivion, it didn't even come close to fascinate me as much as Morrowind did (and hyped as I was, that means it failed my expectations by a wide margin). The handholding got in the way first, and the lack of a meaningful development of the lore and the ultimate blandness of the version of Cyrodiil that was presented here did not allow me to oversee the flaws as much as I did with Morrowind. Interestingly, the level scaling was only a minor grievance for me.

DF is the clear winner for me. Nothing else has since come close to providing the virtual life that Daggerfall did. And it's not something I can easily sum in words - the scale, the economy, the feel of the towns and shops, the houses and ships.. the feeling of emerging from a dungeon into this open world and it's snowing.. utterly wonderful.

But you had to use your imagination - the political intrigue was well hinted at in the manual and the letters, but in reality it wasn't as fleshed out as it could have been. Cardboard cut out NPCs didn't help immersion.. nor did the HALT! guards.

DF is the clear winner for me. Nothing else has since come close to providing the virtual life that Daggerfall did. And it's not something I can easily sum in words - the scale, the economy, the feel of the towns and shops, the houses and ships.. the feeling of emerging from a dungeon into this open world and it's snowing.. utterly wonderful.

But you had to use your imagination - the political intrigue was well hinted at in the manual and the letters, but in reality it wasn't as fleshed out as it could have been. Cardboard cut out NPCs didn't help immersion.. nor did the HALT! guards.

I did finish it, but I think I cheated.

And anyone else remember Rusty Ogre Lodge?

Nah, but I remember the mood-setting intro and the creepy dead king making weird noises somewhere